Jay Allan > Quotes

“You can eat caviar with the sinners, or starve to death with the saints.”
― Jay Allan, Stars & Empire

“Glory is a veneer that reflects the light only from a distance.  Up close you can see through it, to bitter price paid in pain and death.” ”
― Jay Allan, Crimson Worlds Collection I

“The new officer AIs were the state of the art in quasi-sentient computers, and the designers had decided that giving them a soothing, human-sounding voice and an active personality would reduce stress on officers in the field. I can’t speak to the psychology of the officer corps in general, but the damned thing creeped me out. And it talked too much.”
― Jay Allan, Crimson Worlds Collection I

“No men and women could be expected to do what you have done, let alone more.  But you are Marines first, and men and women second. ”
― Jay Allan, The Fall

“the democracies of the west, which had been the drivers of 20th century growth, were in rapid decline. Beset with corrupt and bloated governments, bankrupted by decades of appalling mismanagement, riddled with cronyism, and unable to recapture the economic dynamism of their past, they were teetering on the verge of collapse. The”
― Jay Allan, Crimson Worlds Collection I

“The truth is, they don’t want us back on Earth.  Trained killers who’ve lived for years outside the normal Earth routine of constant surveillance.  That’s why they don’t let us go home.  I figured out part of that a while back, but now I realize the whole truth.  They are afraid of my brethren and me, even as they need us to fight their wars.  It is from stuff such as us that revolutions are made.”
― Jay Allan, Gehenna Dawn

“an eternal reminder of the darkest side of what we do…of the horrendous cost of holding the line, so our people back home can live their lives and watch their children grow on”
― Jay Allan, The Gates of Hell

“Patch me through to Commander Travis, Captain. You can be our relay.” “Yes, sir.” A few seconds later: “Captain…are you reading me?” “Yes, Atara. I’ve got Captain Rogan relaying the signal both ways.” “So”
― Jay Allan, Ruins of Empire

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell. – William Tecumseh Sherman”
― Jay Allan, Crimson Worlds Collection II

“They administered pain-control hypnosis and something they called “compensatory neural stimulation,” but trust me, none of it did a damned thing...sort of like giving you two aspirin before setting you on fire.”
― Jay Allan, Crimson Worlds Collection I

“the substance of republican government was freely surrendered in the end by scared populations willing to trade any freedom for increasingly unreliable promises of security.”
― Jay Allan, Marines

“Remember always the mantra, the grim verdict of the universe, that we now adopt as the central tenet of our own Alliance. Vae victis. Woe to the defeated.”
― Jay Allan, Duel in the Dark

“The Confederation was the one place where citizens, at least some of them, enjoyed anything remotely resembling freedom.”
― Jay Allan, Call to Arms

“There are only two kinds of people that understand Marines: Marines and the enemy. Everyone else has a second-hand opinion. – General William Thornson, U.S. Army”
― Jay Allan, Marines

“The cost of being a source of strength for everyone else was to have no support for yourself, no one to look to, no one even to listen as you put voice to your own fears.”
― Jay Allan, Into the Darkness

“Tomorrow we may face destiny, we may fight and die and fall to the fires of perdition, but tonight is ours, and we drink and make merry.”
― Jay Allan, Duel in the Dark

“One persistent gasbag had harassed him so much he’d almost ordered one of his officers to draw a diagram of the anatomically challenging suggestion he offered the self-important fop.”
― Jay Allan, Crimson Worlds Collection I

“The guest should respect the host’s customs; do you not agree?”
― Jay Allan, Echoes of Glory

“Hypocrisy was an affliction that seemed to afflict all humanity with relentless intensity.”
― Jay Allan, The White Fleet

“Our people were once heroes, men and women who took to the stars, who fought and bled, and forged an empire. Today they are listless and unfocused, and untold billions look only to the imperial support that sustains their meager existences. But even that is in peril. A treasury once filled by expansion, conquest, and industry, is now dry and empty. And the descendants of those who built all we revere spend their time on pointless amusements and petty squabbles over superficial nonsense. With each passing generation, fewer and fewer of our people know how to do anything useful. They consume, but they do not produce, and the empire declines.”
― Jay Allan, The Last Stand

“Yet, if the hour of my death is nigh, I could ask for no more honorable companions by my side.”
― Jay Allan, Even Legends Die

“Then he saluted and turned on his heels, marching out of the room.”
― Jay Allan, Blood on the Stars Collection I

“He’d never been good at ignoring facts in favor of what he wanted to believe, and he’d always been amazed at how adept most people were at the exercise.”
― Jay Allan, Empire's Ashes

“People given freedom invariably misused it, and ultimately sold it off, usually for a pittance.”
― Jay Allan, The Black Flag

“How is it so much easier to face death for yourself, and so much harder to endure the danger of those close to you?”
― Jay Allan, Cauldron of Fire

“Death is my wingman. He is always nearby, following me, shadowing my every move. I cannot shake him, and no evasive maneuver will break his lock on me. I cannot defeat him, no pilot can, so I have befriended him. I do not try to escape from him anymore. He will come for me in his own time…and until then, I will blast every enemy with the guts to show himself in front of me.”
― Jay Allan, Duel in the Dark

“You’ll be amazed how logical illogical thinking sounds when it’s done by a committee,” Howell said, lightly. “The more divorced from practical reality any given theory is, the greater its fascination for those who are also divorced from reality.”
― Jay Allan, Stars & Empire

“It always paid to be careful, even with people you trusted. Especially with those you trusted…they were often the ones who could hurt you the most.”
― Jay Allan, Duel in the Dark

“If mankind could possess only one, what is more valuable, an inexhaustible energy source or a drug that cures all disease?”
― Jay Allan, Marines

“only”
― Jay Allan, The Cost of Victory